90L Belgian syrup - when do you like to add and why?

[Shwagger]

When you make Belgians, or any beer really, and use D90, when do you like to add? In the boil? Or in the fermenter?

And why?

Grassy ass in advance. Cheers.

 

[helibrewer]

In the brewery we add sugars to the boil, I do the same at home...it insures good mixing, sanitation, and complete dissolution. If you are doing something with real high gravity (>20P) or if you have a high percentage of sugar (>20%), you might hold back on some of the addition until high kausen in the fermenter. Yeast will prefer glucose and ignore the maltose sugars so in high gravity situations the beer can get quite high in alcohol content before the maltose metabolism goes into full swing. This can cause sluggish or stalled fermentations (high ethanol, high CO2, low nutrient environment).

 

[Sillybilly]

For the reasons mentioned above, I do high krausen for higher gravity beers and boil for anything else, usually at 15 minutes left.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I've added it to a dubbel later in fermentation, after 2 weeks or so to make sure the yeast had time to fully attenuate, ramping the temp up to the low-80's for the last few days. Gravity was steady at 1.012 then I added a pound of homemade dark syrup which woke the yeast right back up. After 7 days at 75 it was back down to 1.012 so I bottled. Tastes awesome.

 

[Shwagger]

Good replies as always.

How do you feel the flavor profile differs from 15 minutes or a fermenter addition?

 

[Jayjay1976]

Good replies as always.

How do you feel the flavor profile differs from 15 minutes or a fermenter addition?

I don't know if I have enough experience to comment on a flavor difference regarding the timing of the syrup addition, I just wanted to avoid ending up with a syrupy sweet mess. From the outset I was hesitant to add my homemade syrup at all because I worried it might not be as fermentable as it should be. After two weeks in primary the gravity sample lacked depth and the color was too light. In my opinion, the pound of 290* syrup added toasted marshmallow, raisin, and cherry flavors while the higher temps for the last few days helped it to finish out pleasantly dry. I hope I took enough notes to accurately reproduce this next time.